Florida Court Affirms K9 Traffic Stop Rule

Florida Supreme Court rules officers can ask motorists to leave their vehicles during drug-related traffic stops.IMAGE: PexelsThe Florida Supreme Court has ruled that K-9 units can instruct suspects to leave their vehicle during a drug sweep, resolving conflicting District Court of Appeals rulings.

“We hold that binding Fourth Amendment precedent permits a K-9 officer arriving midway through a lawful traffic stop to command the driver to exit the vehicle for officer safety before conducting a lawful vehicle sweep,” the Supreme Court ruling, issued May 23, states.

In the case of State of Florida vs. Joshua Lyle Creller, Justice Renatha Francis, writing for the majority in a 5-1 ruling, stated that police can legally order a driver out of a vehicle for "officer safety reasons" after a lawful traffic stop, according to an article on floridabar.org.

“The issue here is whether this well-settled rule applies to a K-9 officer arriving midway through a lawful traffic stop to perform a dog sniff sweep of a vehicle’s exterior. The Second District Court of Appeal said ‘no,’ certifying conflict with the Fifth District Court of Appeal in State v. Benjamin, 229 So. 3d 817, 825 (Fla. 2d DCA 2022),” he wrote.

The article reported the case originated from a 2018 traffic stop initiated by a narcotics officer who alleged the suspect had cut through a convenience store parking lot to evade a red light. When approached by the officers, the article reports Joshua Creller refused a search of his vehicle.

Once the K-9 unit arrived, the officer, citing his own safety, asked Creller again to exit the vehicle. He refused and the K9 team forcibly extracted Creller from the vehicle. The article reports he was charged with resisting arrest without violence and for possession of methamphetamine.

Creller was convicted after arguing unsuccessfully that he was unlawfully detained, the article reported. The Second District Court reversed the conviction, according to floridabar.org.

In reversing the conviction, the article reported the Second District certified a conflict with a 2017 Fifth District ruling in Benjamin, 229 So. 3d 442, which held that a “mid-stop exit command for the safety of the arriving K-9 officer was lawful,” the justices opined.